Scott Adams

Scott Raymond Adams (born June 8, 1957) is an American author and cartoonist. He is the creator of the Dilbert comic strip and the author of several nonfiction works of business, commentary, and satire. Adams worked in various corporate roles before he became a full-time cartoonist in 1995. While working at Pacific Bell in 1989, Adams created Dilbert. By the mid-1990s, the strip had gained national prominence in the United States and began to reach a worldwide audience. Dilbert remained popular throughout the following decades, spawning several books written by Adams.

Adams writes in a satirical way about the social and psychological landscape of white-collar workers in modern corporations. In addition, Adams has written books in various other areas, including the pandeistic spiritual novella God's Debris and books on political and management topics, including Loserthink.

In February 2023, Dilbert was dropped by numerous newspapers and its distributor, Andrews McMeel Syndication, after Adams called black Americans that disagreed with "It's okay to be white" a "hate group" and said white Americans should "get the hell away from" them. Adams later said this was a use of hyperbole. Adams then relaunched the strip as a webcomic on his locals.com website.

Early life and education

Adams was born on June 8, 1957, in Windham, New York, the son of Paul and Virginia (née Vining) Adams. He has described himself as "about half German" and has English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, and Dutch ancestry. In 2016, Adams said he had a small amount of Native American ancestry, but later discovered via 23andme genetic testing that he does not have any detectable Native American genetic markers. He was a fan of Peanuts comics while growing up and started drawing comics at age 6. He won a drawing competition at age 11.

Adams graduated from Windham-Ashland-Jewett Central School in 1975 and was the valedictorian of his class of 39 students. He earned a BA in economics from Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York in 1979. He then moved to California and started work. In 1986, he earned an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. Adams took Dale Carnegie Training and called it "life changing".

Career

Office worker

Adams worked closely with telecommunications engineers at Crocker National Bank in San Francisco between 1979 and 1986. Upon joining the organization, he first worked as a teller. After four months in which he was twice held up at gunpoint, he entered a management training program. His positions included management trainee, computer programmer, budget analyst, commercial lender, product manager, and supervisor.

He later shifted to work at Pacific Bell. To devote time to building a new career, he woke up every day at 4 a.m. and spent time at various endeavors; cartooning proved to be the most successful of them. Adams created Dilbert during this period of personal exploration. The Dilbert name was suggested by his former boss, Mike Goodwin. Dogbert, originally named Dildog, was loosely based on his family's deceased pet beagle Lucy. His submissions of Dilbert and other comic panels to various publications, including The New Yorker and Playboy, were not published, but an inspirational letter from a fan persuaded Adams to keep trying. He worked at Pacific Bell between 1986 and June 30, 1995, and the personalities he encountered there inspired many of his Dilbert characters. In 1989, while still employed at Pacific Bell, Adams launched Dilbert with United Media. To maintain his income, he continued to draw his cartoons during the early morning hours. His first payment for Dilbert was a monthly royalty check of $368.62. Dilbert gradually became more popular. It was syndicated in 100 newspapers in 1991 and 400 by 1994. Adams attributed his success to his idea of including his email address in the panels, which resulted in feedback and suggestions from readers.

Full-time cartoonist and author

Adams's success grew, and he became a full-time cartoonist as Dilbert reached 800 newspapers. In 1996, his first business book, The Dilbert Principle, was released. It expounded on his concept of the Dilbert principle.

In 1997, Adams won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist and Best Newspaper Comic Strip. Logitech CEO Pierluigi Zappacosta invited Adams to impersonate a management consultant, which he did wearing a wig and false mustache. He tricked Logitech managers into adopting a mission statement that Adams described as "so impossibly complicated that it has no real content whatsoever". His writing in San Jose Mercury News West Magazine regarding the incident earned him an Orwell Award. By 2000, the comic was in 2,000 newspapers in 57 countries and 19 languages.

His comic strips were adapted as a Dilbert TV series, which debuted in January 1999 and ran for two seasons on UPN. Adams served as executive producer and showrunner, along with Seinfeld writer Larry Charles. The show earned a Primetime Emmy Award in 1999. Adams later said that the show had been canceled because he was white and UPN had made a decision to shift toward African-American viewers.

In addition to his cartoon work, Adams has written books in various other areas, including self-improvement and religion. His book God's Debris (2001) lays out a theory of pandeism, in which God blows itself up to see what will happen, which becomes the cause of our universe. In The Religion War (2004), Adams suggests that followers of theistic religions such as Christianity and Islam are subconsciously aware that their religions are false, and that this awareness is reflected in their consistently acting as if these religions, and their threats of damnation for sinners, are false. In a 2017 interview, Adams said that his books on religion, not Dilbert, would be his ultimate legacy.

On a February 22, 2023 livestream of his Real Coffee with Scott Adams program, Adams reacted to a poll that asked if respondents agreed that "it's okay to be white", a phrase described by the Anti-Defamation League as associated with the white supremacist movement. The poll showed 26% of black respondents disagreed with the statement and 21% were not sure. Adams, upset that nearly half did not agree, described black people as a "hate group" and said "the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from black people; just get the fuck away."

In response to these and other related comments, Dilbert was dropped by numerous newspapers across the country, including the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today-affiliated newspapers. Andrews McMeel Syndication, the distributor of Dilbert, announced on February 27, 2023, that it was severing all ties with Adams. Portfolio, his book publisher, announced it was dropping his non-Dilbert book that was scheduled for release that September. Adams defended his remarks as hyperbole and as taken out of context in reportage; he disavowed racism and asserted that nobody would disagree with what he said were his main points: don't discriminate and avoid things that look like they will put you at risk. On March 13, Adams relaunched Dilbert as Dilbert Reborn on the subscription website Locals, minus the earlier Dilbert comics.

Real Coffee with Scott Adams

In 2015, Adams wrote blog posts predicting that Donald Trump had a 98 percent chance of winning the presidency based on his persuasion skills, and he started writing about Trump's persuasion techniques. His pieces on this topic grew popular, so he started writing about it regularly. Adams soon developed this as a daily video presentation called Real Coffee with Scott Adams, distributed to Periscope, YouTube, ScottAdamsSays.com, and Locals, where he covered topics such as current events, politics, persuasion, and routes to success.

Real Coffee with Scott Adams has featured guests such as Naval Ravikant, Ed Latimore, Dave Rubin, Erik Finman, Greg Gutfeld, Matt Gaetz, Ben Askren, Carpe Donktum, Mark Schneider, Steve Hsu, Michael Shellenberger, Carson Griffith, Shiva Ayyadurai, James Nortey, Clint Morgan, and Bjørn Lomborg. In 2018, Kanye West shared multiple clips on Twitter from a Coffee episode titled: "Scott Adams tells you how Kanye showed the way to The Golden Age. With Coffee." In 2020, President Trump retweeted an episode where Adams mocked Joe Biden.

Adams offers paid subscriptions for exclusive content on Locals. In 2020, Adams said: "For context, I expect my Dilbert income to largely disappear in the next year as newspapers close up forever. The coronavirus sped up that inevitable trend. Like many of you, I'm reinventing my life for a post-coronavirus world. The Locals platform is a big part of that."

Other

File:DilBeriTO.jpg

An advertisement for the Dilberito

Adams started Scott Adams Foods, Inc. in 1999, which made the Dilberito and Protein Chef. First announced in The Dilbert Future and introduced in 1999, the Dilberito was a vegetarian microwave burrito that came in flavors of Mexican, Indian, Barbecue, and Garlic & Herb. It was sold through some health food stores. Adams's inspiration for the product was that "diet is the number one cause of health-related problems in the world. I figured I could put a dent in that problem and make some money at the same time." His aim was to create a healthy food product that also had mass appeal, a concept he called "the blue jeans of food". A Flash game titled Dilberito was developed and published by Blam! Video Game Development in 2000 for Scott Adams Foods. The product failed to catch on in the market, leading Adams "several years and several million dollars later" to sell off his intellectual property and exit the business. Adams himself noted, "[t]he mineral fortification was hard to disguise, and because of the veggie and legume content, three bites of the Dilberito made you fart so hard your intestines formed a tail." The New York Times noted the burrito "could have been designed only by a food technologist or by someone who eats lunch without much thought to taste." Adams sold off his intellectual property in Scott Adams Foods when the Dilberito failed in the marketplace in 2003. He was a restaurateur starting in 1997, but exited that business before 2017.

Adams co-founded the service WhenHub, which has been described by Gizmodo as "similar to Cameo ... except instead of pre-recorded messages from movie stars and rappers, it offers live chats with a range of subject-matter experts". In 2019, Adams briefly received negative media attention when during the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting he posted a tweet suggesting that witnesses download the WhenHub app and "set your price to take calls". He later apologized, saying the message was "poorly worded". Template:As of the WhenHub website is inactive.

Adams was a fan of the science fiction TV series Babylon 5. He appeared in the season 4 episode "Moments of Transition" as a character named "Mr. Adams" who hires former head of security Michael Garibaldi to locate his megalomaniacal dog and cat. He had a cameo in "Review", a third-season episode of the TV series NewsRadio, in which Matthew Brock (played by Andy Dick) becomes an obsessed Dilbert fan. Adams is credited as "Guy in line behind Dave and Joe in first scene".

Adams has been a guest on podcasts including Making Sense with Sam Harris, The Tim Ferriss Show, The James Altucher Show, The Ben Shapiro Show, The Rubin Report, Real Talk with Zuby and The David Pakman Show. He has appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher, Commonwealth Club of California, Fox News and Berkeley Haas. Adams was interviewed for Mike Cernovich's documentaries Silenced (2016) and Hoaxed (2019).

Political views

Adams has often commented on political and social matters, although he said in 2016 "I don't vote and I am not a member of a political party." As of 2008, Adams identified his views on social issues as "[leaning] libertarian, minus the crazy stuff." After endorsing Mitt Romney for the 2012 presidential election, Adams endorsed Donald Trump in the following election. During that election, he wrote extensively on Trump, praising his persuasion skills and later described this activity as harming his public speaking career, income, and friendships. He also spoke against Trump's opponent Hillary Clinton, expressing concerns that Clinton's candidacy would lower the status of men in America. In 2017, Adams described his views as supporting left-wing policies he perceived as realistic.

Adams has made various predictions about politics. Early in the 2016 election Adams predicted Trump would win based on his analysis of how persuasive the candidates were. As Trump gained momentum, Adams's election analysis gained media and popular attention. Later predictions repeatedly featured in Politico magazine's annual lists of "Worst Predictions", including that one of Trump, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden would die from COVID-19 by the end of 2020, that "Republicans will be hunted" if Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election and that the 2024 presidential election would result in a "landslide" of claims the election was rigged and the results ultimately overturned in Trump's favor by the Supreme Court.

After a 2022 mass shooting, Adams opined that society leaves parents of troubled teenage boys with only two options: to either watch people die, or murder their own son. He said his comments were inspired by his own stepson, who became addicted to drugs at the age of 14 and later died of a fentanyl overdose. Adams has stressed his opposition to being considered pro-masking and pro-COVID-19 vaccines, and he believes that people unvaccinated against COVID-19 "came out the best" compared to vaccinated people.

In a 2006 blog post, Adams asked if official figures of the numbers of deaths in the Holocaust were based on methodologically sound research. In 2023, Adams suggested the 2017 Unite the Right rally was "an American intel op against Trump." In 2020, Adams said that the Dilbert TV show was cancelled because he was white and UPN had decided to focus on an African-American audience, and that he had been discriminated against. In a series of comic strips in September 2022, Dilbert parodied environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) strategies. Part of the plotline involved a black character who "identif[ied] as white" and the company management asking him if he could also identify as gay.

Personal life

In the early 1990s, the little finger of Adams's right hand would spasm when he tried to draw, and he was diagnosed with focal dystonia. By doing a conditioning exercise, he was able to cure himself. However, in late 2004, his focal dystonia returned, which affected his ability to draw for lengthy periods. Since 2014, he has been drawing on a graphics tablet. He also had spasmodic dysphonia, a condition that causes the vocal cords to behave abnormally. In July 2008, he underwent surgery to reroute the nerve connections to his vocal cords, and his voice is now completely functional.

Adams married Shelly Miles aboard a yacht, the Galaxy Commodore, on July 22, 2006, in San Francisco Bay, in a ceremony conducted by the ship's captain. The two had met at a gym in Pleasanton, California, where Miles was an employee and Adams was a customer. Adams was stepfather to Miles' two children, Savannah and Justin, the latter of whom died of a fentanyl overdose in 2018 at age 18. Adams and Miles divorced in 2014, and Adams said the two remained friends, with Miles moving only one block away after their separation.

On Christmas Day in 2019, Adams announced on his podcast that he was engaged to Kristina Basham, and later revealed that they had married on July 11, 2020. Basham, a model and baker, has two daughters and is a vice president at WhenHub. On March 10, 2022, Adams announced on his YouTube podcast that he and Basham were getting divorced.

Adams claims he is trained as a hypnotist. He credits affirmations for many of his achievements, including scoring in the ninety-fourth percentile on a difficult qualification exam for business school and creating DilbertTemplate:'s success. He states that the affirmations give him focus. He has described a method he has used that he says gave him success: he pictured in his mind what he wanted and wrote it down 15 times a day on a piece of paper. This technique is used by Dogbert in a 1989 Dilbert strip.

Adams continues to live in Pleasanton, California and is active in the San Francisco Bay Area.

On May 19, 2025, Adams revealed on his daily podcast Real Coffee with Scott Adams that he has prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, and that he only has a short time left to live. He has stated that the cancer has spread to his spine which has caused him to use a walker due to the immense pain. He noted that taking ivermectin and fenbendazole to treat the cancer did not work for him. In June 2025, he revealed he had intended to go through physician assisted suicide until it was revealed his cancer is hormone sensitive.

Recognition

Adams has received recognition for his work, including the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award and Newspaper Comic Strip Award for 1997 for his work on Dilbert. He climbed the Thinkers50 Ranking of the 50 most influential management thinkers, placing 31st in 2001, 27th in 2003, 12th in 2005, and 21st in 2007. He received the Orwell Award in 1998 for his participation in "Mission Impertinent" for San Jose Mercury News West Magazine.

Publications

Dilbert compilations

• Always Postpone Meetings with Time-Wasting Morons (1992)
• Shave the Whales (1994)
• Bring Me the Head of Willy the Mailboy! (1995)
• It's Obvious You Won't Survive by Your Wits Alone (1995)
• Still Pumped from Using the Mouse (1996)
• Fugitive from the Cubicle Police (1996)
• Casual Day Has Gone Too Far (1997)
• I'm Not Anti-Business, I'm Anti-Idiot (1998)
• Journey to Cubeville (1998)
• Don't Step in the Leadership (1999)
• Random Acts of Management (2000)
• Excuse Me While I Wag (2001)
• When Did Ignorance Become a Point of View? (2001)
• Another Day in Cubicle Paradise (2002)
• All Dressed Down and Nowhere to Go (2002) (Still Pumped from Using the Mouse, Casual Day Has Gone Too Far, and I'm Not Anti-Business, I'm Anti-Idiot combined)
• When Body Language Goes Bad (2003)
• Words You Don't Want to Hear During Your Annual Performance Review (2003)
• Don't Stand Where the Comet Is Assumed to Strike Oil (2004)
• The Fluorescent Light Glistens Off Your Head (2005)
• Thriving on Vague Objectives (2005)
• Try Rebooting Yourself (2006)
• Positive Attitude (2007)
• This Is the Part Where You Pretend to Add Value (2008)
• Dilbert 2.0: 20 Years of Dilbert (2008)
• Freedom's Just Another Word for People Finding Out You're Useless (2009)
• 14 Years of Loyal Service in a Fabric-Covered Box (2009)
• I'm Tempted to Stop Acting Randomly (2010)
• How's That Underling Thing Working Out for You? (2011)
• Teamwork Means You Can't Pick the Side that's Right (2012)
• Your New Job Title Is "Accomplice" (2013)
• I Sense a Coldness to Your Mentoring (2013)
• Go Add Value Someplace Else (2014)
• Optimism Sounds Exhausting (2015)
• I'm No Scientist, But I Think Feng Shui Is Part of the Answer (2016)
• Dilbert Gets Re-accommodated (2017)
• Cubicles That Make You Envy the Dead (2018)
• Dilbert Turns 30 (2019)

Special compilations (annotated, favorites, etc.)

• Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies: Dogbert's Big Book of Business (1991)
• Dogbert's Clues for the Clueless (1993)
• Seven Years of Highly Defective People (1997)
• Dilbert Gives You the Business (1999)
• A Treasury of Sunday Strips: Version 00 (2000)
• What Do You Call a Sociopath in a Cubicle? Answer: A Coworker (2002)
• It's Not Funny If I Have to Explain It (2004)
• What Would Wally Do? (2006)
• Cubes and Punishment (2007)
• Problem Identified: And You're Probably Not Part of the Solution (2010)
• Your Accomplishments Are Suspiciously Hard to Verify (2011)
• I Can't Remember If We're Cheap or Smart (2012)

Other Dilbert books

• Telling It Like It Isn't (1996)
• You Don't Need Experience If You've Got Attitude (1996)
• Access Denied: Dilbert's Quest for Love in the Nineties (1996)
• Conversations With Dogbert (1996)
• Work Is a Contact Sport (1997)
• The Boss: Nameless, Blameless and Shameless (1997)
• The Dilbert Bunch (1997)
• No You'd Better Watch Out (1997)
• Please Don't Feed the Egos (1997)
• Random Acts of Catness (1998)
• You Can't Schedule Stupidity (1998)
• Dilbert Meeting Book Exceeding Tech Limits (1998)
• Trapped in a Dilbert World: Book Of Days (1998)
• Work—The Wally Way (1999)
• Alice in Blunderland (1999)
• Dilbert Sudoku Comic Digest: 200 Puzzles Plus 50 Classic Dilbert Cartoons (2008)

Dilbert-related business publications

• Dilbert Newsletter (since 1994)
• The Dilbert Principle (1996)
• Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook (1996)
• The Dilbert Future (1997)
• The Joy of Work (1998)
• Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel (2002)
• Slapped Together: The Dilbert Business Anthology (2002) (The Dilbert Principle, The Dilbert Future, and The Joy of Work, published together in one book)
• Dilbert's Guide to the Rest of Your Life: Dispatches from Cubicleland (2007)

Non-Dilbert publications

• God's Debris (2001)
• The Religion War (2004)
• Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain! (2007)
• How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big (2013)
• Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter (2017)
• Loserthink: How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America (2019)
• Reframe Your Brain: The User Interface for Happiness and Success (2023)

External links

• Template:Official website
• Scott Adams Says at Periscope
• Dilbert.com
• Template:Charlie Rose view
• PR efforts for the October 2013 release of How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big